Both the Miami Herald and The New York Times published reports this week with lurid new details regarding the Jerry Falwell Jr. x-rated photos scandal that broke earlier this year.
Quick backstory: In May, Reuters reported that the evangelical leader and antigay activist contacted Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, for help regarding an “embarrassing personal matter” involving him, his wife, Becki Tilley, and their 20-something pool boy, Giancarlo Granda, in 2016.
Rumor had it, Granda had somehow gotten his hands on some scandalous photos of Falwell and was blackmailing him to the tune of $1.8 million, and Falwell needed Cohen’s assistance in navigating the situation.
Naturally, as soon as the story broke, Falwell denied the whole thing, telling Fox News, “There are no compromising or embarrassing photos of me,” and rushing out a statement saying he had never employed Michael Cohen to represent him in any legal matters.
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Within a week or so, the story died. The end.
Related: Antigay activist Jerry Falwell Jr. embroiled in x-rated photos scandal
And then this week came the sequel!
On Wednesday the Miami Herald confirmed that the photos do, indeed, exist and that they feature Falwell’s wife “in various stages of undress.”
There are three photos total. Two of them were taken at the family’s farm in Virginia and the third was taken at a vacation lodge in Islamorada, Florida.
So when Falwell said, “There are no compromising or embarrassing photos of me,” he wasn’t really lying. The photos aren’t of him, they’re of his wife.
Now onto the pool boy.
According to the Herald, the Falwells met Granda while vacationing at the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, where he was working as a pool boy.
Talking Points Memo reports:
The couple was reportedly impressed with Granda’s ambition to get into Florida real estate, a friend told the Times. Soon Granda was embarking on hiking and skiing trips with the couple and flying on their private jet. At some point after their initial meeting, Granda traveled to the Cheeca Lodge with the Falwells, according to the Miami Herald, the same resort where Tilley is reportedly seen in at least one of the photographs.
As the relationship deepened, the Falwells agreed to lend Granda $4.7 million so he could purchase a youth hostel, which also included a restaurant and a liquor store, in the Miami area.
Because lending $4.7 million to some random young man you and your wife met at a hotel is a totally normal thing, right?
Anyway, Granda purchased the hostel and everything appeared to fine for a while. Granda upgraded the property and co-managed it with another business partner. But then something–it’s not clear what–happened, and his relationship with the Falwells soured.
Then, according the New York Times, someone–possibly (read: probably) Granda–got ahold of “personal” photos of Tilley and used them to try and blackmail Falwell, which is when Michael Cohen purportedly got involved.
Falwell hired him to make the whole thing go away.
According to the Times, in a recorded phone call between Cohen and comedian Tom Arnold, Cohen said: “There’s a bunch of photographs, personal photographs, that somehow the guy ended up getting–whether it was off of Jerry’s phone or somehow maybe it got AirDropped or whatever the hell the whole thing was.”
Cohen didn’t say who “the guy” was, but he did reference a “pool boy” later in the call.
He went on to tell Arnold he was going to pay “the guy” off but ultimately didn’t have to because he ended up just deleting them freely on his own.
For his part, Granda has denied knowing anything about anything, releasing a statement in May saying he had “no idea about the alleged ‘personal photographs’” of Falwell and that he definitely never tried blackmailing the evangelical leader.
Clearly, there are still a lot of missing pieces to this puzzle. But we’re sure it will all come together eventually.
Related: Jerry Falwell Jr.’s former pool boy says he doesn’t know anything about those x-rated photos
curiobi
No seriously, what is even going on with this now?
Almost 5 million was given to this “pool boy”. FOR WHAT? Blackmail or to cover up an affair? -Also why won’t this go away? Oh because there is more two it, a lawsuit by a father and son who say there were defrauded and had to change their names. The fact the Hostel is apparantly been run to a loss of over over a hundred thousand dollars.
Not one thing about any of this makes a lick of common sense. What is going on? It only concerns me if is Mr Falwell’s hypocrisy is being exposed, I couldn’t care less about his bad/shady real estate deals. So I reiterate, what the hell is going on with this?
lord.krath
^This. If there is hypocrisy involved, I want it exposed. Falwell enjoys too much influence and recognition to have this slide.
Doug
Pretty lurid, but all this time I was hoping they were photos of Falwell and the pool boy, or at least a three-way with the wife.
Bytemenow
You don’t “lend” $4.7 million dollars to someone you’re not fvcking. Period.
JED08
Yup, that is some serious coin. I was taken aback by the first figure that was initially put out of 1.8 million.
Brian
You also don’t take them globetrotting with you. And your wife, which is an odd twist.
dwes09
What was mentioned in the original article, but never in the Queerty coverage, is that the “pool boy” and Fallwell’s son “Trey” are/were apparently friends, schoolmates and business partners in the hostel.
That makes the loan at least a tiny bit easier to understand.
shanfrina
… Typical Falwell #conman / #fakechristian !?! Aren’t “Pool Boys” every Living/Breathing Gay Man’s (Closeted or Open) Fantasy?!? LOL!!!
D P
To answer, yes, they are.
Goforit
Youthful, toned, tanned, sweating half naked in the noonday sun. What’s not to fantasize about?
Joey3223
100% right!
russellhm
Interesting that Falwell would go to Trump’s “fixer.” Was it because Michael Cohen had a reputation at getting rid of adult film stars and former Playboy models and keeping his boss from exposure? We know how that worked out and we’re still waiting for the FEC’s decision on campaign finance violations. (Or has the case disappeared?) It will definitely be among Impeachment charges. I suspect the pool boy was often on his knees—and it wasn’t in prayer.
Jimmy T
I suspect it was Falwell who was on his knees.
StudMuffin
Maybe Falwell DID have something to do with the pool boy. Wouldn’t that be fantastic? Another christian falling off the pedestal.
animatedgifman
This entire “update” is simply a rehash of everything already known and not in dispute. What’s the point?
Kangol2
Nope, the Miami Herald story had new information. You should read it!
Hdtex
No, it’s NOT a rehash. Try to keep up Cletus.
Bryguyf69
Oh? You had previously known about the number of the photos, and what was on the photos? Or that Granda was blackmailing them? Sure, it was always suspected, but this is confirmation. The contents of the photos is key. Was it of the couple, or just one person? What were they doing? Simply undressing, showering, douching or changing a tampon is very different than engaging in sex, especially extramarital or kinky sex. Douching doesn’t make them hypocritical, but a threesome would. So yeah, there was new information.
poundmetoo
Queerty gives me “outrage fatigue”!!!
cverrastro
I doubt the real story will get out since everything Trump related gets covered up and confused. All I can add is I knew Granda when he was at the Fountainebleau and he was a gay hustler along with a friend who was the poolside masseuse. I also stayed at that hostel with my boyfriend just before it sold. I thought at the time it was odd as it had been there for years and was the only cheap lodgings in that area. He had been staying at my place but when I heard a band popular in Slovakia (where he’s from) were played one night only at a club nearby we grabbed the nearest hotel room so we could party and not have to drive back home in the morning. Even though anything on South Beach might seem like a good investment this is located on the extreme south end of the strip in a very run down area, and the building was decrepit Dumping that kind of money in to redevelop it was a risk. The fact that the evangelist made his son a partner in the venture suggests to me that the real deal is his son is gay and this was Falwell’s way of setting them up. Maybe when the deal foundered or the couple was breaking up Granda went looking for some extra leverage. In any event, he sure didn’t pass on the payoff from Cohen unless Falwell approached him directly with an even better deal.
Brian
The youth hostel had a liquor store in it? I’m hoping that’s just a mixed up detail among all this reporting and re-reporting.
Kangol2
Wouldn’t it be deliciously ironic if Falwell Jr. and his wife were engaging in the very thing that right-wingers/white supremacists are obsessed with, cuckolding? I mean, who knows, but given the evidence, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Granda was banging out the Ms. as Falwell Jr. watched, which would explain the photos, the largess to Granda (i.e. payoff), Cohen’s involvement, and the secrecy. I mean, screaming “Cuck” is one thing, but literally being one while ranting about “morality” might be too much even for Falwell Jr.’s fans and pals, though given the news today about Drumpf’s alleged rape of another woman back in the mid-1990s, I doubt he’d bat an eye.
ShiningSex
Closeted Falwell, that’s all.
TxCudlr
This biggot needs to be & get exposed to the fullest extent, so that HE can be FULLY ridiculed, shamed & made fun of to the fullest extent.
frankcar1965
Another degenerate Christian.